Sep. 21, 2012

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Nathan Paape, 13, left, and Antonio Barbeau, 13, make their initial appearance in front of Sheboygan County Court Commissioner Rebecca Persick today for the beating death of Barbara Olson, 78 on Monday in Sheboygan Falls. / Photos by Bruce Halmo/The Sheboygan Press

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Two 13-year-old boys accused of using a hatchet and a hammer to bludgeon to death a 78-year-old woman — the great-grandmother to one of them — in her Sheboygan Falls home made their first appearance in court Friday where they were each charged with first-degree intentional homicide and ordered held on $1 million bail.

Sheboygan County Court Commissioner Rebecca Persick followed District Attorney Joe DeCecco’s recommendation and set bail for Antonio D. Barbeau and Nathan J. Paape. Both Paape and Barbeau appeared in shackles before Persick on Friday morning.

The two are accused of striking Barbeau’s great-grandmother, Barbara J. Olson, in the head and killing her on Monday at her home, 210 Westridge Drive in Sheboygan Falls.

“This is a horrendous act. … An extremely violent crime,” Persick said in court.

According to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Sheboygan County Circuit Court:

Sheboygan Falls police received a 911 call from Olson’s adult daughter — and Barbeau’s grandmother — at about 1 p.m. Wednesday saying she found her mother lying on the garage floor in a pool of blood around her head. Olson was pronounced dead from “massive head injuries” at the scene by Sheboygan County Coroner David Leffin.

A neighbor said he last saw Olson on Monday afternoon and said he saw her car being driven at a high rate of speed and with squealing tires at about 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Police later located Olson’s car in the parking lot of a Sheboygan bowling alley. The car was unlocked with the keys still in it.

State Department of Criminal Investigation agents went to Paape’s house on Sheboygan’s south side to interview him. Paape told investigators that Barbeau said they would go to Olson’s house and rob her and kill her. Paape brought the hammer and Barbeau, who also lives on the city’s south side, brought the hatchet.

Paape’s mother took the boys to Olson’s house without knowing their plans. They entered the house through an unlocked side door and came face-to-face with Olson, who threatened to call Barbeau’s mother.

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That’s when they attacked Olson, with Barbeau first hitting her over the head with the blunt side of the hatchet, knocking her down. He hit her several more times with the blunt side as she pleaded with him to stop, covering her head and moaning. Paape also hit her twice over the head with the hammer.

Barbeau then flipped the hatchet around and used the sharpened side to hit her again, piercing her skull so deeply it took both of them together to pull the hatchet out of her skull.

The boys tried to drag the body to the woman’s car, leaving a trail of blood through the house, in hopes of driving it to another location and disposing of the body. They were unsuccessful, and left the body on the floor of the garage.

They then ransacked the house, taking Olson’s purse, cash, jewelry and other items.

They finally put stolen goods in the car, drove it to a Sheboygan bowling alley and left it there with the keys in the car and stolen items left out in the open. They hoped someone would steal the car and the other items and be implicated as the murderers.

Then they went to a nearby restaurant and ate pizza. After eating pizza, they bought some cleaning wipes and cleaned the car of their fingerprints.

Police later found the murder weapons in the trunk of the car, along with a bloody blanket and crocheted throw. The stolen goods also were in the car.

At the time the crime was committed, Barbeau was a runaway from the county Juvenile Detention Center on North Sixth Street, where he was being held on a juvenile matter. He turned himself in on Tuesday for that unrelated juvenile matter before Olson’s body was discovered.

Investigators obtained a search warrant and searched Barbeau’s locker at the Juvenile Detention Center, where they found blood-splattered clothing and shoes.

Paape has never been in police custody, his attorney, Public Defender June Spoerl, said in court. Spoerl did not return a phone call seeking further comment.

Outside the courtroom Friday, DeCecco said, “The callousness of the crime is an aspect of this case that will shock and disturb the community. The fact they went and had a pizza indicates their extreme lack of concern for the woman.”

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DeCecco said he did not know why the boys wanted to kill Olson and declined to say why they wanted to rob her because those details were not included in the criminal complaint.

The two boys are being tried as adults. If convicted, Paape and Barbeau could be imprisoned for life.

Barbeau and Paape are due to appear before Circuit Court Judge Timothy Van Akkeren for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 2.

Barbeau’s attorney, George Limbeck, said he plans to make a motion to send his client’s case to juvenile court.

Limbeck said his client was “holding up like you’d expect any 13-year-old to hold up. He is a very small, immature-looking 13-year-old, almost 14-years-old kid. The family I’ve been dealing with (Barbeau’s mother, grandmother and grandfather) is extremely distraught.”

Kayla Carney, 13, lives across the street from Paape and knew both boys through attending eighth grade at Farnsworth Middle School, and has known Barbeau since they attended Wilson Elementary School together and considers them friends, although that has changed in recent years, she said.

She said Barbeau was in a serious car accident when he was in fifth grade and had to be transported by Flight to Life to Children’s Hospital in Wauwatosa.

“He was never the same after that,” she said. “He became totally closed off.”

She said she knew Barbeau, whom she and friends call “Tino,” had been in trouble with police in recent weeks.

Kayla’s mother, Kristen Scarpaci, 37, standing on her front porch across the street from Paape’s house, said Paape was generally pleasant to others in the neighborhood, “although he made an obscene gesture to my son the other day. And I’ve seen him skipping school, but those things don’t make a person a criminal.”

Kayla said Paape and Barbeau hung out with a few friends and could be “disrespectful” to other kids “not in their immediate circle of friends.”

“Nathan gets in trouble at school a lot. Swearing at teachers and getting angry,” she said.

“This is horrendous,” Scarpaci said. “It’s so strange. To think you see these kids riding bikes around the neighborhood, see them talking with other kids on the corner and then something like this.”

No one answered when reporters knocked at the Barbeau and Paape residences.

Farnsworth Principal Todd DeBruin sent home a note to parents informing them of the situation and that a crisis intervention team was in place to help students, parents and school staff.

Sheboygan Area School District Superintendent Joe Sheehan also issued a statement Friday afternoon stressing student safety after Barbeau and Paape were charged. Sheehan said psychologists and social workers from around the district were made available Friday and will also be at Farnsworth on Monday and beyond if needed.

“Our No. 1 concern is to give any student or family support to work through this issue,” Sheehan said. “As human beings, everyone reacts a little differently… we just have to make sure we’re ready. What happens often is (the counselors are) there and they’re not needed but it’s better to have them there.”